SEO News
& Updates
Algorithm updates, Google announcements, AI search and agent developments, and industry shifts. We cover what happened and what, if anything, you need to do about it.
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A Shorter Format for Smaller SEO Stories
The seo handbook is introducing a shorter snippet format alongside full news articles, for stories that are genuinely useful but too small to sustain a full article's context and analysis.
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EU Fines Google €890 Million for Search Self-Preferencing Under the DMA
The European Commission has fined Google €890 million for self-preferencing its own services in Search and for Play Store steering restrictions, its first penalty under the DMA.
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Court Dismisses Google's DMCA Lawsuit Against SerpApi Over Search Scraping
A US federal court has dismissed Google's DMCA claims against SerpApi, ruling that bypassing anti-scraping controls to reach uncopyrighted search results is not circumvention under the law.
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EU Tells Google to Share Search Data With Rivals and AI Chatbots
The European Commission has told Google to share anonymised Search data, covering queries, rankings, clicks and views, with rival engines and AI chatbots from January 2027.
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Google's AI Mode Is Now Its Own Second Most-Cited Domain
Profound found citations to google.com inside Google's AI Mode grew 8.4x from April to June 2026, driven almost entirely by Business Profile and Product Knowledge Panel cards.
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Study: Wider ChatGPT Search access cuts traditional search by 9.4%
A Bocconi preprint using US clickstream data finds that giving people ChatGPT Search reduced traditional search use by 9.4%, and that ChatGPT sends a click back in only 5.2% of sessions.
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OpenAI Retires ChatGPT Atlas, Folding Agentic Browsing Into ChatGPT
OpenAI is shutting down ChatGPT Atlas on 9 August 2026, under 10 months after launch, and moving browser-based agentic work into ChatGPT and Codex.
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Google revamps Image Search and brings image generation into AI Overviews
For Google Images' 25th birthday, Google replaces the Image Search home with a personalised gallery and adds Nano Banana image generation to AI Overviews.
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ChatGPT Citations Shift When Its Hidden Search Pipelines Switch
Independent research finds ChatGPT routes web queries through undisclosed retrieval pipelines, and the sources it cites change when the pipeline does.
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Cloudflare Splits AI Crawlers Into Search, Agent and Training, With Default Blocks From 15 September
Cloudflare now sorts every crawler into Search, Agent or Training and, from 15 September, blocks Training and Agent bots by default on ad-supported pages.
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Google Search Console Adds Platform Properties for Social and Video Content
Google Search Console has a new platform property type showing how your Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube posts perform in Google Search and Discover.
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Google's Mueller: llms.txt and Content Signals Have No Confirmed Crawler Effect
John Mueller says Google doesn't use llms.txt or llms-author.txt and knows of no crawler honouring Content Signals, as Cloudflare shifts its AI crawler defaults.
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Google Business Profile Reviews Are Vanishing and Google Has Paused New Reviews While It Investigates
Businesses are losing reviews en masse from Google Business Profiles. Google is investigating, has paused new reviews on affected listings, and says it will restore any removed in error.
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Google Has Switched Off the AMP Cache: Searchers Now Land on Publisher-Hosted AMP Pages
As of July 2026, Google Search no longer serves AMP pages from its cache. Clicks now go to the publisher's own AMP page. Google confirms no change to how AMP ranks.
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Fake DMCA Takedowns Are Being Weaponised to Deindex Competitors
Bogus copyright takedowns are being used as a negative-SEO weapon to remove rival content from Google Search. Here is the mechanic and the defensive playbook.
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Study: AI Search Collapses Onto Identical Answers When Models Cite AI Content
A June 2026 Graphite study of 1,528 simulations found AI search converges on the same answers 79.6% of the time when models retrieve AI-generated content.
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Bruce Clay, a Founding Figure of SEO, Has Died
Bruce Clay, widely credited with first using the term search engine optimisation and founding one of the earliest SEO agencies, has died.
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SimilarWeb: AI-Recommended Brands Get 2.5x More Site Visits, Mostly via Branded Search
A SimilarWeb panel study found brands recommended by ChatGPT were 2.5x more likely to get a site visit within seven days, with 55.9% of that traffic arriving as branded search.
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Google Rolls Out the June 2026 Spam Update
Google's June 2026 spam update finished rolling out on 26 June 2026, taking about two days. It applied globally and to all languages.
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Google Cloud Publishes the Open Knowledge Format for AI Agents
OKF is a draft open spec for representing curated knowledge as Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. Google scopes it to internal data, but SEOs are asking whether it could work for websites.
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Cloudflare and Browser Makers Announce PACT Bot-Verification Protocol
Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Shopify are developing PACT, a privacy-first token protocol to separate humans and authorised agents from abusive bots.
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Google, Microsoft and Hugging Face Publish the Agentic Resource Discovery Spec
ARD is a draft open spec for publishing and discovering AI capabilities via an ai-catalog.json file. Backed by Google, Microsoft and Hugging Face, but adoption is unconfirmed.
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Study: AI Overviews Cite Self-Serving Listicles but Recommend Competitors
Lily Ray's June 2026 analysis found Google's AI Overviews cite brands' own 'best' listicles while recommending competitors around 69% of the time.
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Pew: 60% of Americans Now Read AI Summaries in Search
A June 2026 Pew survey finds around 60% of US adults read AI search summaries and 49% use AI chatbots, but adoption is running well ahead of trust.
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PageSpeed Insights Adds an Agentic Browsing Audit
Chrome's Lighthouse now scores pages for AI agent readiness. The Agentic Browsing category checks the accessibility tree, llms.txt, and WebMCP, and runs in PageSpeed Insights.
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CMA Orders Google to Give Advance Notice of Significant Ranking Changes
The UK's CMA has imposed two binding conduct requirements on Google Search: fair, transparent ranking with advance notice of major changes, and mandatory search data portability.
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Bing Webmaster Tools Adds AI Visibility Insights: Intents, Topics, Citation Share and Compare
Bing Webmaster Tools has added four AI visibility features, letting publishers see why their content is cited in Copilot answers, not just which queries triggered it.
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152 Chrome Extensions Caught Faking Google Organic Search Traffic
Socket found 152 'live wallpaper' Chrome extensions laundering install traffic into fake Google organic visits, polluting analytics attribution for 105,000 users.
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Apple Launches Siri AI With Web Answer Generation: What Publishers Need to Know
Apple's WWDC 2026 Siri AI overhaul brings web answer generation via Applebot. The updated documentation gives publishers two distinct opt-out controls.
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Demand for Non-AI Search Has Measurably Risen Since Google I/O 2026
Since Google's AI Mode announcement at I/O 2026, DuckDuckGo's no-AI page visits are 84% above baseline, installs peaked at 30% growth, and both DuckDuckGo and Bing have launched opt-out tools.
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Google Analytics to Add Google Business Profile Data
Google is rolling out a native integration linking Google Business Profile to Google Analytics, bringing calls, directions, and bookings data into GA reports.
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Google Launches Search Profiles for Publishers and Creators
Google has officially launched Search Profiles, letting publishers and creators with 100,000+ followers claim a customisable page in Search and Discover.
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Google Adds AI Performance Reports and Opt-Out Toggle to Search Console
Google launched an AI performance report and opt-out toggle in Search Console for UK publishers, following CMA requirements under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act giving publishers formal controls over AI search.
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Microsoft launches Web IQ: Bing-powered grounding API for AI agents
Microsoft's Web IQ connects AI agents to Bing's index via passage-level grounding APIs. Microsoft says it already grounds Copilot, and some of ChatGPT's web answers.
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Google Preferred Sources Now Surface in AI Overviews and AI Mode
From 27 May 2026, preferred publishers are highlighted with badges inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google also confirmed preferred sources will influence citation frequency in AI responses.
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Google May 2026 Core Update
Google's May 2026 core update ran from 21 May to 2 June 2026. More volatile than March, with significant ranking movement on 23 May and 30 May.
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Google I/O 2026: Information Agents bring 24/7 background search to Google Search
Google announces Information Agents at I/O 2026: always-on background agents that monitor the web and send synthesised updates, launching summer 2026.
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Google I/O 2026: New Search box, AI Mode at one billion users, and conversational AI Overviews
Google redesigns its Search box for the first time in 25 years and announces AI Mode has reached one billion monthly users, with AI Overviews at 2.5 billion.
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Google I/O 2026: SynthID and Content Credentials come to Search and Chrome
Google is bringing AI content watermarking and C2PA provenance verification to Google Search and Chrome, with OpenAI and others adopting SynthID.
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Shopify Ships llms.txt and Agentic Discovery Files to Every Store
Shopify quietly added llms.txt, agents.md, and sitemap_agentic_discovery.xml to every store in May 2026, but AI crawlers aren't reading the new files yet.
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Google officially positions AI search optimisation as SEO, not a separate practice
Google publishes AI optimisation guide confirming traditional SEO tactics remain foundational for generative AI features.
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Google Analytics Adds AI Assistant as Default Channel Group for Traffic Attribution
Google Analytics 4 now automatically classifies traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini as its own channel, replacing manual tracking workarounds.
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Google Search Console's 50-Week Impressions Logging Error Is Fixed
A GSC logging error inflated impression counts for 50 weeks from May 2025. Google fixed it going forward in April 2026, but historical data will not be corrected.
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Google Drops FAQ Rich Results from Search
Google has stopped showing FAQ rich results in Search as of 7 May 2026, with Search Console reports and API support to follow in June and August.
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Google Updates AI Overviews and AI Mode to Drive More Clicks to Publishers
Google announced five updates to AI Overviews and AI Mode on 6 May 2026, making inline links more prominent, adding hover previews, and surfacing subscription and social content.
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Google Brings Reddit Quotes Into AI Overviews as 'Expert Advice'
Google updated AI Overviews and AI Mode on 6 May 2026 to surface direct quotes from Reddit and other forums in a new section labelled Expert Advice, with full creator attribution.
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Google Preferred Sources Now Supports All Languages Globally
Google expanded Preferred Sources to all languages on 30 April 2026. Marked publishers get 2x click-through rates; 200,000 unique sites already selected by users.
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Adobe Completes $1.9 Billion Semrush Acquisition
Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush on 28 April 2026, folding the SEO platform into a new Adobe CX Enterprise system alongside GEO and agentic search optimisation.
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Gemini in Chrome: Skills, Auto-Browse, and a Browser-Wide AI Assistant
Google launched Skills in Gemini for Chrome on 14 April 2026, adding reusable AI prompts to a browser already gaining auto-browse and APAC availability.
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Google Classifies Back Button Hijacking as Spam, Enforcement Starts 15 June 2026
Google confirmed back button hijacking as a spam violation on 14 April 2026, with manual actions and demotions starting 15 June 2026.
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Google March 2026 Core Update
Google's first broad core update of 2026 ran from 27 March to 8 April, producing the most volatile ranking shifts in recent memory. Around 80% of top-three results changed position.
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Google March 2026 Spam Update Completes in Under 24 Hours
Google's March 2026 spam update rolled out on 24 March 2026, completing in under 24 hours. It was one of the fastest completions of any pre-announced Google update.
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GSC Branded Queries Filter Reaches Full Rollout on 11 March 2026
Google Search Console's branded queries filter became available to all eligible sites on 11 March 2026, enabling native separation of branded and non-branded traffic.
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AI Overviews Are Cutting Organic CTR: What the Data Shows
Studies tracking the click-through rate impact of Google AI Overviews show organic CTR falling 61% on affected queries. Being cited in an AI Overview drives significantly more clicks than organic ranking alone.
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WebMCP: Chrome's Early Preview of an Agent-Ready Web Standard
Chrome's WebMCP lets websites expose callable tools to in-browser AI agents. In early preview since February 2026; broad rollout expected mid-to-late 2026.
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Google's First Dedicated Discover Core Update Targets Clickbait and Boosts Local Content
Google's February 2026 Discover core update, the first of its kind, ran from 5 to 27 February 2026 and promotes locally relevant content while reducing sensational material.
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Google AI Mode Adds Personal Intelligence for Paid Subscribers
Google AI Mode, available to all US users since June 2025, gained a personal intelligence feature in January 2026 letting AI Pro and Ultra subscribers connect Gmail and Photos for contextualised search responses.
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Google December 2025 Core Update
Google's final broad core update of 2025 began on 11 December, hitting major news publishers hard while favouring focused, single-intent pages and established eCommerce brands.
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Search Console Adds AI-Powered Report Configuration
Google added an AI-powered configuration feature to the Search Console Performance report in December 2025, letting users set up filters and comparisons using plain-language prompts.
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Ahrefs Launches $29 Starter Plan and Expands AI Overview Tracking
Ahrefs launched a $29 (approximately £22) per month Starter plan on 1 October 2025, alongside AI citations charts and a ChatGPT integration in the same feature update.
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Google August 2025 Spam Update
Google's August 2025 spam update targeted two specific behaviours: low-quality AI-generated content published at scale, and manipulative inorganic link-building techniques.
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Publishers Report Double-Digit Traffic Losses as AI Overviews Expand
Data from across the publishing industry shows significant organic traffic declines for informational content following the global expansion of Google's AI Overviews through 2025.
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Google June 2025 Core Update
Google's June 2025 core update was one of the larger algorithm shifts in recent years, causing high volatility across YMYL, travel, and e-commerce. Some sites hit by the 2023 helpful content update saw partial recoveries.
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AI Search Engines Take Measurable Share of Informational Queries
By mid-2025, Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and other AI-native search tools had established measurable query share for informational searches, particularly among younger and technical audiences.
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Ahrefs Adds Global Keyword Metrics to Free Webmaster Tools
Ahrefs added global keyword metrics to its free Webmaster Tools in May 2025, letting site owners see worldwide search volumes and country-level ranking data without a paid subscription.
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Google March 2025 Core Update
What happened during Google's March 2025 core update, which sites were affected, and what the pattern of volatility suggests.
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Google Rolls Out AI Overviews in the UK
Google confirmed the UK rollout of AI Overviews on 15 August 2024, expanding the generative answer feature to the UK, India, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.
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